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Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Graedjoan Giantish Verbs: Tenses and Aspects

In Graedjoan Giantish, verbs are marked for both tense and aspect.

There are three tenses in Graedjoan Giantish: the nonpast, the simple past, and the imperfect past. Verbs do not have an infinitive form.

The nonpast is marked on verbs with a zero morpheme ("-∅"). The nonpast is used for all actions that are occurring in either the present or the future.

The simple past is marked with the affix "-va." The simple past is used for all actions that are occurring in the past.

The imperfect past is marked with the affix "-iz." The imperfect past is used for all actions that are occurring in the past but that are not considered complete by the speaker.

There are simple verbal aspects in Graedjoan Giantish: "the simple", the perfect, and the progressive.

"The simple" aspect is marked on verbs with a zero morpheme ("-∅"). Verbs that are not marked for the perfect, meaning that they have been completed, or that are not marked for the progressive, meaning that they are ongoing, are in "the simple."

The perfect is marked on verbs with the affix "-yrd." Verbs are marked for the perfect if they are viewed by the speaker as having been completed*.

*NOTE: The affix "-yrd" has an alternate form of "-dyrd" which appears when the affix is applied to a verb ending in a vowel.

-yrd --> -dyrd/V__

The progressive is marked with the affix "-guv." Verbs are marked for the progressive if they are viewed as ongoing by the speaker*.

*NOTE: The affix "-guv" has an alternate form of "-eguv" which appears when the affix is applied to a verb ending with the consonants "c" or "x."

-guv --> -eguv/C1__ {where C1 is "c" and "x"}

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